Driving journal compound



Jan, 21, 1941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE DRIVING JOURNAL COMPOUND Elmer W. Adams, Hammond, Ind., and Lawrence C. Brunstrum, Chicago, Ill., assignors to Standard Oil Company, Chicago 11]., a corporation of This invention relates to lubricants of the driving journal compound type and particularly to such lubricants in which all or a large part of the soap content consists of soda soaps of certain low molecular weight fatty acids.

Lubricants of the driving journal compound type consist wholly or largely of soda soap and lubricating oil, the soda soap comprising from about 35% to about and preferably from about 40% to about 50% of the product. The soap content of such products should be made from fatty acids rather than fats, i. e. should be substantially glycerine free and should also be substantially anhydrous although a trace of water is usually present.

In the past lubricants of the driving journal compound type have been made using soda soaps of fatty acid materials consisting almost wholly of fatty acids having at least 16 carbon atoms per molecule, for instance palmitic acid (C15H31COOH), S11 1c acid (C17H35COOH) 0r behenic acid OOH). We have found that greatly sin. results can be obtained by the use of large an... nts of soaps of fatty acids containing from 10 to 14 carbon atoms per molecule. We have found that lauric acid CiiHzaCOOH) is particularly desirable, but myristic acid (C13H21COOH) is also unusually good and capric acid (C9H19COOH) can likewise be used to advantage. The 11 and 13 carbon atom saturated fatty acids (C1oH21COOH and C12H25COOH), while not found in nature in significant amounts, would no doubt share the advantages of the above materials.

It is an object of our invention to provide new and improved lubricants of the driving journal compound type and methods of manufacture therefor. Another object of our invention is to provide lubricants of the driving journal compound type having good body and high plasticity at room temperature coupled with very high softening times at elevated temperatures. A further object of our invention is to provide lubricants of the driving journal compound type having improved pressing characteristics. Another object of our invention is to provide a method of making lubricants of the driving journal compound type under steam kettle conditions which have properties even more advantageous than those of products which could be made heretofore only under the more drastic conditions of the fire kettle technique. Other and more detailed objects, advantages and uses of our invention will become apparent as the description thereof proceeds.

It is highly desirable that a lubricant of the driving journal compound type be plastic at ordinary temperatures so that it can be pressed into sticks or blocks and so that the formed lubricant will not break underconditions of use. At the same time it is very desirable that such lubricants rfitain their body at elevated temperatures so that t ey will continue to resist flow under low pressures. Otherwise these lubricants do not retain their form during use and are consumed. too 10 rapidly.

We find that these properties can be combined to a most unusual degree by the use of low molecular weight saturated fatty acids having from 10 to 14 carbon atoms per molecule. Such fatty 13 acids can be made in a fairly high degree of purity by the fractional distillation of fatty acids obtained by the hydrolysis, and if necessary hydrogenation, of naturally-occurring fats.

Softening time is an index of quality from the 20 service standpoint and is measured by a test in which r. cylinder of driving journal compound /1 inch in diameter and about incl 'rJ-long is heated on an oil or mercury bath to the desired test temperature while subjected to the weight 25 of an gram cylinder which provides a pressure on the driving journal compound comparable to the pressure to which the compound is subjected in actual operation when it is forced by a spring against a hot bearing. Softening time is defined 30 as the time required to flatten the test cylinder one quarter of an inch under these conditions.

The following results show the softening times of lubricants of the driving journal compound type made in a steam kettle under like conditions 35 using soda soaps of various fatty acids of about purity:

The tests at 300 F. were not completed but at u 1,000'and 1,800 seconds respectively the myristate and laurate samples were by no means completely flattened while the conventional products succumbed in 300 seconds. Still more startling are the results at 260 F. The myristate test sample was reduced in height only about 5 6 of the speci fied inch in 2,000 seconds and the result is therefore given as 12,000 seconds. The laurate sample showed no tendency to soften'at 260 F.

At the same time the myristate and laurate products were more plastic and more easily pressable at room temperatures than the stearate and palmitate products.

While best results are obtained by using soap containing at least about 85% of 10 to 14 carbon atom compounds excellent results can be obtained by using these low molecular weight materials in conjunction with greater quantities of soaps made from fatty acids of higher molecular weight. Thus the soap content of the driving journal compound can be from about 25% to 100% or better from about 50% to 100% soaps of 10 to 14 carbon atoms, the remainder being of higher molecular weight, for instance 16, 18 ormore carbon atoms.

Lubricants in accordance with our invention can be made in accordance with any of the profatty acids heretofore used to give low softening time products when steam kettles are used this is not true when low molecular weight fatty acids are used.

In the steam kettle technique the soap is preferably formed in all of the oil at a temperature of from about 260 F. to about 300 F., but it can be formed in a portion of the oil under these conditions and the remainder of the oil then graded in. In no case should the grease be heated above 330 F.

While we have described our invention in connection with certain preferred embodiments 5 thereof, it is to be understood that these are by way of illustration and not by way of limitation and We do not mean to be bound thereby but only to the scope of the appended claims.

We claim:

1. In a substantially anhydrous lubricant containing from about 35% to about soda soap, at least the bulk of the remainder being lubricating oil, the improvement which consists in using soda soap of which at least about is made from saturated fatty acids having 12 carbon atoms per molecule.

2. In a substantially anhydrous lubricant containing from about 40% to about 50% soda soap, at least the bulk of the remainder being lubricating oil, the improvement which consists in using soda soap substantially free of unsaturated compounds of which at least about 85% is sodium laurate.

3. A substantially anhydrous lubricant of the 25 driving journal compound type made up at least largely of soda soap and lubricating oil, said soda soap being substantially free of unsaturated compounds and containing at least about 25% of material having predominately 12 carbon atoms 30 per molecule, together with a substantial amount of soap having from 16 to 18 carbon atoms per molecule.

4. In a substantially anhydrous lubricant containing at least 25% soda soap, at least the bulk 35 of the remainder being lubricating oil, the improvement which consists in using soda soap of which at least about 85% is sodium laurate.

ELMER W. ADAMS. 4o LAWRENCE C. BRUNSTRUM.

CERTIFICATE or CORRECTION. Patent No, 2,229,050., January 21, 19b1,

ELIVIER w. ADAMS, ET AL.

It is hereby certified that error appears in the printed specification of the above numbered patent requiring correction as follows: Page 2, first I column, line 511., strike out the word "to"; and. second column, line 22, claim 2, strike out "substantially free of unsaturated compounds"; and that the said Letters Patent should be read with this correction therein that the same may conform to the record of the case in the Patent Office,

Signed and sealed this 25th day of February, Ao D, 19lpl,

Henry Van Arsdale, (Seal) Acting Commissioner of Patents, 

